Tag: Switzerland

 

 

 

 

After a splendid breakfast provided by Frau Luder at her home near Curtilles, we set out on a grey, but at that point dry, morning, to walk five kilometres along the La Broye valley, to the town of Moudon. As we reached the town centre, it started to rain, so we sought shelter in the Swiss Reformed Church.

As I remarked in reply to a comment on an earlier post, although pilgrimage is not really part of the Swiss Reformed Church tradition, I was many times impressed by the way their Churches which are located on the Jakobsweg/Chemin de Saint-Jacques, seek to make welcome pilgrims who visit them.

 

 

 

 

 

The Church in Moudon illustrated this very well with this specially created private St. James Chapel.

Within the choir stalls, St. James could also be found, with a scallop shell on his hat.

After exploring the Church, we realised that the rain was now much heavier. So we made a quick run across the town centre square to a café, where we both enjoyed a Café au lait which we made last as long as possible, in the hope that the rain would stop!

We were successful in our endeavour so that it was dry once more, as we resumed walking. From Moudon, the Chemin de Saint-Jacques climbs upwards over 220 metres on a mixture of minor roads and forest tracks, to the village of Vucherens, where we rested and ate our picnic lunch.

In Vucherens, as in so many places along the Chemin, there were a couple of signs advertising B and B accommodation to passing pilgrims. But it was far too early to stop so we walked on, feeling fairly sure we would find a suitable place to stay, further along the way. But as we walked that afternoon, the weather once more turned rainy and miserable, and signs advertising accommodation were totally absent.

We reached the large village of Montpreveyres where we thought there ought to be somewhere to stay, even though nothing was shown in Sybille’s printed accommodation list. But there was nothing to be had. Leaving Montpreveyres involved walking on or alongside the busy Cantonal road for about 400 metres, before our route took us into the forest where we struggled with very muddy conditions underfoot in several places. Sybille said that they were the worse underfoot conditions she had experienced in the whole of her time walking across Switzerland.

Feeling increasingly wet and tired, we finally reached the edge of Epalinges, which whilst a separate commune, is effectively an outer suburb of Lausanne. We had to walk for at least another forty-five minutes through streets of wealthy suburban houses, until we finally reached a major road intersection. There, on the other side of the roundabout was a bar and hotel. We both agreed, although we knew it would be expensive, which it was, this was where we were going to spend the night. We were tired, we were wet, we had walked 29 kilometres and it was now just gone 19.00 in the evening.

After a large beer in the bar, and a warm shower in our hotel bathroom, Sybille invited me to a nearby restaurant for our evening meal. As with the hotel it was expensive – but the food was good and the house red was very quaffable. After the day we had experienced, we felt we both deserved it!

The next morning unfortunately did not start well. Wanting to recover from our exertions of the previous day and not planning to walk so far that Saturday, we went down to breakfast just after 09.00. What followed was a major struggle have any breakfast at all, despite the fact that breakfast was meant to be served until 10.00.

There was a large group of Chinese tourists staying at the hotel and the one person on duty for breakfast, was more interested in clearing up after the Chinese who were slowly leaving, than he was in making any provision for us. We had to ask for places to be set for us, ask for coffee and cups to drink it from, and so it went on, despite going to speak to the man on the reception desk several times. All I can say is our experience was not a good recommendation for Hotel Union, Epalinges.

At least the weather was fine and sunny as we left the hotel. Despite now being in an urban area, our route did take us initially along a wooded valley and through an attractive park. Soon afterwards, we were rewarded with this view of Lausanne and its Cathedral, with Lac Léman beyond.

When we finally reached the Cathedral, for the first occasion in our time of being on pilgrimage together, we had to cope with quite large numbers of other people being around, a combination of it being the weekend and Lausanne attracting visiting tourists. We explored the Cathedral and then made our way through the main shopping streets before enjoying a small beer sitting outside in the sunshine.

Seeking to walk out of the city centre towards the shore of Lac Léman, we experienced an unusual lack of waymarking. But a combination of Sybille’s German guide and a free street map I picked up from the hotel, got us to the lake shore and the resumption of Route 4 signs. Just before we reached the shore, we passed the HQ of the International Olympic Committee.

The view across Lac Léman was delightful and the weather was warm enough for a few people to be swimming in the lake. For the next few kilometres, the Chemin was alongside the lake or very close to it, eventually taking us from Lausanne, into the neighbouring commune of St-Sulpice. I tempted Sybille to stop for a little further liquid refreshment in a lakeside bar and, as we were drinking, the inevitable happened – it started to rain. We rapidly moved to find shelter under a beer garden umbrella.

Deciding that after the previous day of getting wet and struggling to find accommodation, we didn’t want a repeat experience, Sybille consulted her guide and her accommodation list. One possibility was the Jordan family who were listed as accueil jacquaire, people who offered overnight accommodation specifically for pilgrims, but who were 1.5km off the Chemin in the neighbouring commune of Ecublens.

Sybille phoned the number – the family were at home and said that they loved having pilgrims to stay. The rain having eased but not stopped, we resumed walking and reached St-Sulpice Church. From there we left the Chemin and headed away from the lake towards Ecublens, buying a bottle of wine on the way, to share with our hosts.

Our hosts were wonderful as well as being a fascinating family. The parents, Martin and Ruth, have four sons, two at University, two of Secondary/High School age. The eldest son was away climbing mountains but the other three were at home, along with the girlfriend of the second eldest son. The family do not have a car but rely on their bicycles and public transport. They also do not have a television. Much of what we all ate that evening had come from their garden, including an interesting variety of potato that was purple!

Martin and Ruth both originally come from a German-speaking part of Switzerland and therefore the language within the family is Schweizerdeutsch/Swiss German. They all also speak Hochdeutsch/High German. However, living in Francophone Switzerland and the children having all attended local schools, they all also spoke French. And both parents, along with the girlfriend, who had spent time in Singapore, spoke good English too. Therefore the conversation around the dining table that evening, was conducted in four different languages!

Ruth told us that of all her sons, the one most reluctant to learn and speak French was the second eldest. However, his girlfriend was a local French-speaking Swiss young lady who didn’t speak, or want to speak, German. Therefore, much to his mother’s amusement, he was having to overcome his reluctance and use French as his langue d’amour 🙂

The hospitality of the Jordan family was exceptional and was in such stark contrast to our previous night in the Hotel in Epalinges.

When we left the ‘House of Angels’ at Froidville bei Posieux on the morning of Wednesday 13^th August, the sky was cloudy and grey. Within in a few minutes of setting out, light rain began to fall as we climbed the path through the woods, heading towards Posieux. After walking for about forty minutes, we reached the beginning of Posieux and shortly afterwards discovered a most pleasant surprise.

In the front yard of a house was a refreshment point for passing pilgrims. There was hot water in a flask, together with tea bags and a jar of instant coffee. In a sealed plastic container were various nibbles. All of this, together with a picnic table and chairs, was set up under the wide eaves of the roof of the house meaning we could shelter from the rain whilst enjoying all that had been provided.

We realised whilst sitting there, that this was also a place on Sybille’s printed list that offered B and B accommodation for pilgrims. Sybille had actually phoned the previous day to see if we could stay there. But the hosts only had two beds and one was already booked, hence we stayed in the ‘House of Angels’ at Froidville bei Posieux instead. No doubt there was a lucky pilgrim, walking about three kilometres in front of us 🙂  

We walked on through Posieux and neighbouring Ecuvillens, around an aerodrome and into a forest. As we were about to enter the forest, the light rain became heavy rain. Fortunately, in the middle of the forest was a walkers hut – Cabane Cornard. Whilst the hut was locked, it had a large covered porch where we were able to sit in the dry and eat our lunch whilst the worst of the rain was falling.

By the time we had finished eating, the rain had all but stopped, so we made our way on to the village of Posat, then dropped down to once more cross the River Glâne. A climb up the other side of the valley eventually brought us to the larger village of Autigny. As you can see in the photograph, Sybille didn’t trust the weather and still had her poncho over her rucksack, ready in case the heavens opened again.

The last part of our walk that day was along a minor tarmac road from Autigny to the next village of Chavannes-sur-Orsonnens. We then diverted away from the Chemin de Saint-Jacques for over a kilometre, along a somewhat busier road, to the neighbouring village of Orsonnens. This was to reach the Monastère Notre-Dame de Fatima, the home of a group of a Vietnamese Cistercian monks who gave us excellent hospitality overnight.

The next morning dawned fine and sunny and remained so for the whole of the day. We made our way back onto the Chemin de Saint-Jacques, a kilometre or so on from where we had left it the previous evening, and headed towards the historic hilltop town of Romont.

Being a hilltop town, it did involve quite a steep climb, zigzagging up to the historic town centre. Having made it to the top and visited the main Church, we rewarded ourselves with a small beer, sitting at an outside table of a bar-restaurant, enjoying the bright sunshine.

Descending from the town centre and passing through part of the modern town suburbs, we found a shady spot near the village of Billens, to sit and eat our picnic lunch. Then there was a little more climbing to do to reach the highest point on our walk that day at around 800 metres above sea level, where we crossed the boundary from the predominantly Roman Catholic Fribourg Canton, into the predominantly Protestant Vaad Canton.

There then followed a quite steep decent of nearly 300 metres down into the La Broye valley to the village of Curtilles, part of which you can just see through the trees in this photograph. The much larger town of Lucens with its prominent castle, can be seen on the other side of the valley, across the river.

In Curtilles, there was a horse-riding school which according to Sybille’s accommodation list, offered the possibility to again schlaf im Stroh/sleep on straw. A lady who we spoke to at the riding school, said she would send a text message to the proprietor who was out with some of his horses. Ten minutes later she came back to us saying that we should walk on for about a further kilometre to where there was a roadside water fountain and some people harvesting potatoes in the field opposite and they would be able to help us.

It was here that we met Frau Marianne Luder, a sixty-nine year old farmer’s widow who was busy helping her son with the potato harvest. She offered us overnight B and B accommodation and later explained that the riding school could not help us because it was still school holidays and they were therefore fully occupied with children staying for a week, learning to ride.

Although we were in Francophone Switzerland, Frau Luder explained that she was originally from Bern. Therefore, although she spoke fluent French, she preferred to speak in German. Her price for B and B was CHF 30 per person, very reasonable by Swiss standards. But she also offered to provide ein kleines Abendessen for a further CHF 5 each, an offer that we happily accepted. What followed was a wonderful three course meal, the largest kleines Abendessen that either of us had ever experienced 🙂

Just as we were eating our dessert, the phone rang for Frau Luder. It was the riding school, asking if she could take four German cycling pilgrims who had just arrived, also hoping to schlaf im Stroh/sleep on straw and had found there was no room. “Yes she could”, was her answer, “as long as one of them didn’t mind a mattress on the floor”. In due course, the amazing lady produced a second kleines Abendessen, to also feed these new arrivals! 

Not only was our host extremely hospitable, much to Sybille’s delight, she had a large, elderly dog called Ali. Sybille is normally rather reluctant to have her photograph taken – she much prefers to be behind the camera, rather than in front of it. But this is a photograph she actually asked me to take – with her doggy friend 🙂

After a night punctuated by further thunder, lightning and rain, we awoke to grey skies the next morning and heard the pitter-patter of rain falling once more whilst we were eating breakfast. But just as we were resigning ourselves to a wet day, blue sky began to appear above the hill behind where we were staying. Our host assured us that where the blue sky was appearing, was the direction from which the weather always came. Fortunately, her forecast proved true and we enjoyed a dry and increasingly sunny day.

We first walked three kilometres back to the main Jacobsweg at Gwatteg, passing along this interesting path which traverses a low ridge with wonderful views on either side.

The Jacobsweg across Switzerland is waymarked as long-distance footpath 4 as here on this signpost at Gwattegg. Route 4 in the direction to Santiago is additionally marked with a blue border and golden scallop shell. Route 4 in the opposite direction just has the plain green background. 

Around lunchtime, we reached the village of Amsoldingen with this delightful pre-Romanesque Church.

Since the Reformation, it has belonged to the Swiss Reformed Church and at some point, the interior must have been re-ordered with the font made the central focus.

However, one delightful pre-reformation fresco has been preserved.

In the afternoon, we walked on towards the small town of Wattenwil. Sybille had earlier phoned ahead to a farm outside Wattenwil, and booked for us to schlaf im Stroh/sleep on straw, a uniquely Swiss form of accommodation on farms. Click on the link for an explanation in English.

Fortunately, as we reached the outskirts of Wattenwil, there was a poster advertising the self-same farm, Erlebnis Hofmatt, with a map of how to reach it from the centre of the town. But the poster also said that if your legs were too tired, and mine by then certainly were 🙁 , then all you needed to do was to walk to the Church in the town centre and then phone the farmer who would drive down and collect you. We took the easy option 🙂

Whilst there were two German families staying in other accommodation at the farm, we had the upstairs loft with its long bed of straw to ourselves. Herr Künzi laid out two blankets on the straw and gave us pillows and then all we had to do was spread our respective sleeping bags on the blankets. Showers and toilets were provided and we had a most comfortable night’s sleep and an excellent breakfast the following morning. 

Once more there was rain overnight but it had all but stopped raining by the time we climbed the hill from the farm next morning, making our way to rejoin the Jakobsweg. This was the view behind us with Erlebnis Hofmatt, the building in the bottom right of the photograph. 

Whilst this was our final view of the Thunersee.

Just before midday, as you can see, we reached the Church at Riggisberg. It being Sunday 10^th August, the last of the tidying up following the morning service was taking place. Here, as with nearly every Swiss Reformed Church that we visited, there were toilets open and available for use. Most Roman Catholic Churches were open but rarely had toilets. This raised a question in my mind. Does a Protestant sermon take longer than the time it takes to celebrate a Roman Catholic mass, hence the need for toilet facilities for Protestants? 🙂 My other suggestion, which Sybille declared, won the prize for the worst joke of the week, was that clearly the Swiss Reformed Church were ‘flush’ with money!

From Riggisberg, we climbed further to reach neighbouring Rüeggisberg. We were both amused to find that the residential street leading to the centre of the small town, was actually called ‘Jakobsweg‘ 🙂 What this photograph also reveals is something that was to catch us out later that afternoon. Not every waymark on the Jakobsweg has the route 4 sign on it. Some intervening signs, as here, just say ‘Wanderweg‘. The trouble is, other waymarked routes are also just signposted ‘Wanderweg‘, meaning it is possible to end up on the wrong ‘Wanderweg‘ 🙁

In Rüeggisberg are these remains of what was once a very extensive priory. It originally belong to the Abbey at Cluny in France and was the first Cluniac house to be built in the German-speaking world. The priory was abandoned in 1532 when much of the town was destroyed by fire. Now only this small section remains standing, together with some sections of the foundations that reveal the size of the original building.

After eating our bread, cheese and cold meat lunch, sitting alongside the priory ruins, we walked on, now predominantly down hill, towards our goal for the day, the town of Schwarzenburg, where Sybille had already made a phone booking for B and B accommodation that night. By now the weather had turned quite warm and sunny. Reaching the little village of Wislisau, I spotted a very nice bar and beer garden and led Sybille into temptation by suggesting having some liquid refreshment.

The beer was cool and refreshing, but immediately afterwards, we made the mistake of following a Wanderweg sign which wasn’t one for the Jakobsweg and were at least two kilometres off course before realising our mistake. An enquiry at a farm confirmed we were on the wrong track and guidance was given for us to head back down a minor road to the main road and then turn left. We did eventually make it to our accommodation in Schwarzenburg, but we could have done without that detour 🙁